Contribution ID 949. Backed this Kickstarter chessboard years ago, this isn't a recent order. Since mid-2025 alone I've been given seven different shipping or tracking dates, each one passed with no delivery and no proactive update, I had to chase every single time. I paid a separate shipping fee in Dec 2025, already knowing at that point the boards weren't ready. I've asked for a full refund twice, May 2026 and Aug 2026, both times the reply ignored the refund request entirely and just gave another vague update. As of Aug 2026, years in, still no product, no refund, no real ETA.
TB
Tim B.
I am Backer #1189 in the United States.
I am Backer #1189 in the United States.
What makes this situation especially unacceptable is not simply that the project has been delayed. Kickstarter projects can run into manufacturing problems, supply-chain issues, financing problems, and unexpected technical challenges. Backers understand risk.
What is much harder to accept is years of repeated promises, vague explanations, emails saying orders are being prepared or placed into the “next batch,” and then nothing happening.
Meanwhile, Wonder Substance continues actively marketing and selling Phantom chess boards to new customers. If boards are being produced and shipped to customers ordering today, the company needs to clearly explain why people who provided the original funding are still waiting years later.
That is the issue.
The people who took the earliest risk should not become the lowest priority.
Looking through the Kickstarter comments, I am clearly not the only backer reporting this experience. Other backers describe years of similar communications: promises of upcoming shipments, requests to resubmit information, statements that tracking will follow, and then months or years without delivery.
The company's standard response continues to be some variation of:
“We apologize for the delay. We are still delivering remaining orders. Please check your email.”
After five years, that is no longer an adequate explanation.
At this point, Wonder Substance should publicly provide:
The exact number of Kickstarter orders still unfulfilled.
A clear fulfillment schedule by backer number or region.
An explanation of why newer retail orders are being accepted while original backers remain unfulfilled.
Actual shipment and tracking information instead of another promise about a future batch.
A refund process for backers who no longer wish to wait.
I stopped supporting Kickstarter projects largely because of experiences like this.
I wanted the Phantom project to succeed. I still want the product I backed. But five years of waiting while watching the product continue to be marketed to new buyers has destroyed my confidence in the company.
This review reflects my experience as Backer #1189 and the communications I have received. I am not calling the company fraudulent as a legal conclusion. I am saying that, from a customer's perspective, years of unfulfilled promises and continued sales to new customers create an unacceptable level of distrust.
Wonder Substance: stop asking your original supporters for more patience. Deliver the boards, provide verifiable shipping dates, or refund the backers who helped make this product possible.
JP
John P.
5 years and waiting
5 years and waiting. If it isn't totally a scam it is vaporware. Customer service is non-existent.
CP
Chris P.
Complete fraud
Complete fraud. Have been waiting since the beginning for my board. At various times they have asked for more money for express shipping or similar (which I refused). A year ago it was supposed to be delivered early 2026. Just today they now say they are short of parts and invite me to send them more money for a different set! Utter SCAM
DA
Dalek
5 years and still nothing
5 years and still nothing, a scam
run away
After 5 year they have the audacity to ask me 199 USD to upgrade my board because the shippement will be faster ?!
Please don't order this.
AZ
AZ
It's a scam company
It's a scam company, they sell vaporware. They may have shipped a handful of boards by now, but thousands of people on kickstarter are still waiting for theirs since 2021. It has been years of broken promises and shifting deadlines. They also charge backers $163 for standard shipping while their retail website lists $69 shipping to the same address — their excuse is that backers got a cheaper board price so they can't absorb the shipping cost. They claimed my total cost (board + shipping) was still lower than retail — but it still felt like backers were being penalized for supporting them early. As of today, I still have no board and no tracking number.
BR
Bernhard R.
The whole thing is fraud
The whole thing is fraud. Supported on kickstarter
5 YEARS AGO
They just took the money and never delivered.
AM
André M.
I ordered from kickstarter 5 years ago
I ordered from kickstarter 5 years ago. Still haven’t received the board. Been requesting a refund 2 years ago. Still no refund. It’s a complete scam.
